Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 246: Inspection
Just after the spring plowing was completed, a timely rain fell for a whole day and night.

After the rain stopped and the sky cleared, Jiang Chunfu, the head of the family, led his men to go to the fields to work again.

There is always work to do, such as digging ditches and repairing ground grids.

With more servants at home, there has to be division of labor. Jiang Chunfu is the boss now, and all the work outside is his responsibility.

The Xing family is now the housekeeper, and all the messy matters at home and outside are managed by the Xing family.

Xingye was responsible for running around outside, purchasing things, delivering messages, etc., and everyone asked him to do everything.

In this way, Qu Shaoyang doesn't have to do everything himself and saves a lot of worry.

After everything was settled at home, on the ninth day of April, Qu Shaoyang led a horse team of more than twenty men to Tadian and other places to collect pig bristles, mountain products, medicinal herbs, etc.

This time, Qu Shaoyang brought Qu Jiang with him.

He intended to train Qu Jiang and let Qu Jiang be responsible for taking over the business in the future.

The main reason is that there is too much money involved, and I am not very reassured if it were to be replaced by an outsider.

Qu Jiang is an honest man and also our brother, so it's just right to hand the matter over to him.

Of course, this line of work is not something that can be done casually.

Qu Shaoyang plans to take Qu Jiang to gain more experience to see if Qu Jiang has the potential in this area. If not, he will have to replace him with someone else.

The group set out from Maoer Mountain and headed towards Tadian. They passed by various villages along the way and were warmly received by everyone.

Nowadays, among the villages and towns along the river, who has not heard of Qu Shaoyang's name?

If he had not led the security team and assisted the doctors in treating patients and saving lives, I am afraid that the villages along the river would have been like the one on the other side of the river, and I don’t know how many people would have died.

So this trip to collect pig bristles went quite smoothly. Many villagers were so eager to give the goods to Qu Shaoyang without asking for any money.

Qu Shaoyang naturally couldn't do that. He gave the other person the full amount of money.

Just tell him that if you save up pig bristles or something like that in the future, keep them for him and don’t sell them to other vendors.

Seeing that Qu Shaoyang was so righteous, everyone agreed readily. From then on, they only recognized Qu Shaoyang, and no other vendors would be able to help them.

Qu Shaoyang also found a suitable person as an agent in each village, and the agent would help with purchasing on a regular basis.

When you have accumulated a certain amount, you can find an opportunity to send it to Maoer Mountain.

In this way, Qu Shaoyang won’t have to run around everywhere all the time.

A pig weighing about 200 pounds can produce about two pounds of bristles.

Most families slaughter pigs during the Chinese New Year, and knowing that pig bristles can be sold for money, they save them.

Some people are more creative and have invented a way to pull out the bristles of a living pig.

They fed the pigs white wine to open their pores, and then used combs and other tools to comb the bristles in a reverse direction.

In this way, the pig bristles can grow again after falling off, which is much better than killing it directly.

Qu Shaoyang naturally didn't care how these people got the bristles. For him, the more bristles the better.

Everyone was collecting the bristles, combing and sorting them, and then bundling them up according to color and length.

After more than ten days, they had visited almost all the villages and towns upstream of the Yalu River and collected a large amount of pig bristles, as well as some skins, medicinal herbs and other things.

So Qu Shaoyang led his men back.

Just after passing the Toad River that day, Qu Shaoyang saw someone riding a horse galloping towards him. He looked closely and thought, wow, isn’t this Xingye?

Xingye saw Qu Shaoyang and the others from a distance, so he quickly pulled the reins and dismounted.

"Boss, someone from the county government has come and asks you to go to the county town immediately."

Qu Shaoyang was stunned. Why did the county want him again? Hadn't they figured out the previous epidemic?

"Did someone tell me what happened?"

Xingye shook his head. "No, the person who came was very anxious. He just said it was a good thing and asked the boss not to delay and to hurry to the county town."

"Good news? What good news can there be?" Qu Shaoyang couldn't guess what was going on. He just turned around and reminded Qu Jiang and the others to be careful on the way back, not to rush too much, and to be safe.

Then, Qu Shaoyang and Xingye rode their horses at full speed towards the county town.

The two of them traveled day and night, and after two and a half days, they finally arrived at the county town.

Qu Shaoyang didn't care about anything else. He just washed up and went to the county government office.

"I am here to see the magistrate. I deserve to die. I didn't know you had something to call me for, so I am late. Please forgive me."

"My dear nephew, it's too polite for you to say that.

Your father-in-law and I are from the same clan and are relatives. How can there be any blame or no blame?
Maoer Mountain is too far from the county seat, and it is inconvenient to travel there. I can understand.

This officer is looking for you this time because he has something important to tell you."

When County Magistrate Chen met Qu Shaoyang, he was extremely polite. Not only did he stand up to greet him, he also shook Qu Shaoyang's hand and tried to get close to him.

Qu Shaoyang was now even more confused, not knowing what the other party was up to.

"No, no, I will do my best to fulfill any order you give me, and I won't delay for even a moment.

Even if it means going through fire and water, I will do it. "

Upon hearing this, County Magistrate Chen laughed, "Not really, not really, it's not that serious yet.

My dear nephew, please take a look. This is the document sent down from the East Road Office."

County Magistrate Chen casually handed a letter on the table to Qu Shaoyang.

Ever since Xiaozhi started school, Qu Shaoyang pretended to learn from him.

Later, the Chen family moved to Maoer Mountain, and Qu Shaoyang found excuses to study and practice calligraphy with Chen Xiuyun.

Therefore, in the eyes of everyone, Qu Shaoyang can now recognize most of the characters, and Qu Shaoyang does not have to pretend to be illiterate all the time.

Qu Shaoyang took the letter and glanced at it, immediately showing a surprised and happy expression. "Sir, this..."

It said that because the upper reaches of the Yalu River were separated from the other side by only a river, the people of the two countries had frequent exchanges, which repeatedly caused disputes and the people could not live in peace.

Also, because it is far away from the county seat and blocked by high mountains, it is difficult to implement government orders.

After much consideration, the imperial court decided to set up a Yalu River sub-surface inspection team to manage the area from Shuidonggou, Maoershan, and Tadian.

The inspection office was located in Maoer Mountain. The inspector was a ninth-rank official and was under the jurisdiction of the county government.

It is an agency dispatched by the county government, responsible for local public security, patrols, land measurement, taxation and other matters.

"My dear nephew, you are smart and decisive, and I admire your abilities very much.

Therefore, I recommend you to the Taotai to take up the post of the Yalu River defense inspector.

You must not let me down. Work hard, and if you have the opportunity in the future, you may be promoted further."

County Magistrate Chen patted Qu Shaoyang on the shoulder and said with a smile.

"Your kindness to me is as great as the sky. Even if I were to be torn to pieces, I would never be able to repay your kindness.

From now on, I will obey your orders to repay your kindness." Qu Shaoyang knelt down and kowtowed to express his loyalty.

"Oh, nephew, no, Inspector Qu, get up quickly, get up quickly.

From now on, you and I are colleagues. As long as you do your job conscientiously and responsibly, I will never let you down."

County Magistrate Chen helped Qu Shaoyang up with both hands and said with a smile.

"Inspector Qu, to tell you the truth, the county government is in a difficult situation right now.

Although this defense patrol has been set up, there are not enough people to carry out the work and the salary is not adequate.

Therefore, the yamen can only give you the salaries of six runners, and the rest of the personnel have to be recruited by Inspector Qu himself.

As for the military pay, that has to be dealt with by the inspection office itself."

(End of this chapter)